Howard's path to Houston proved a difficult one

By Tania Ganguli

July 13, 2013Updated: July 14, 2013 9:42pm

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Staff

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Dwight Howard's parents, Sheryl and Dwight Sr., recognized the toll that drama-filled seasons in Orlando and Los Angeles took on him. They showed their support for his decision to join the Rockets by attending his introduction along with his daughter Layla, 3. less

Dwight Howard's parents, Sheryl and Dwight Sr., recognized the toll that drama-filled seasons in Orlando and Los Angeles took on him. They showed their support for his decision to join the Rockets by attending ... more

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Staff

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Dwight Howard's debut as a Rocket became a family affair as his son Braylon, 5, made an appearance at the introductory news conference.

Dwight Howard's debut as a Rocket became a family affair as his son Braylon, 5, made an appearance at the introductory news conference.

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

Howard's path to Houston proved a difficult one

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ATLANTA - The unobservant might miss the tiny school that was Dwight Howard's last stop before he became a professional basketball player. Its exterior is unassuming, almost hidden. A humble sign reads Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, with an image of a child at a desk with his hand raised.

As the driveway veers left past the small schoolhouse and a cluster of portable classrooms, the gymnasium bears simply his name. It's on a white sign, hanging from the edge of an overhang and the corners are worn beneath the words "Dwight D. Howard II Gymnasium."

"It was a very small school," Howard, 27, said. "It was all about love, loving everybody."

An aura of stability and pleasantness surrounded Howard's childhood. There was never a reason for the sensitive young kid to learn to handle criticism or slog through adversity. In his adult life, that changed.

"There wasn't anything that could have prepared for being in that situation," said Austin Dudley, a close friend of Howard's who has known him since kindergarten.

Over the past two NBA seasons, the Rockets' marquee free-agent pickup went from a goofy, beloved figure in Orlando, Fla., the town whose NBA team drafted him, to the subject of derision and annoyed apathy from various NBA fans.

It was a period of his life that forced him to stop thinking about all of that. It forced him to think about what he wanted above all else.

"I just really had to develop thick skin," Howard said. "I was hearing a lot of different things, things that really weren't me. I would just hear what people were saying and just had to really stay away from and just really focus and get away from all that negativity and just focus on all the positive things. It's very tough to do but I'm at a better place now and I'm just looking forward to this fresh start."

He wants to get back to the fun he had when it was all working, before an uncomfortable season in Los Angeles and before the awkwardness in Orlando. Those closest to him want that, too.

"He lost that happiness," said his mother, Sheryl Howard. "There was so much going on and he was scrutinized so much. Dwight is a great person. So I'm just hoping that he can get back that smile on and off the court."

No stranger to ridicule

He's convinced people away from their ire before.

Once, during Howard's senior year of high school, SACA entered an opponent's packed gym at an inner-city school to a raucous crowd filled with fired-up teenagers. Some held signs that read "Dwight Who?"

Howard blocked so many shots his uncle Paul Howard recalls an opposing fan approaching him to ask if Dwight could please let their team score.

Later in that game, the entire gym froze as Dwight took a pass from his teammate Javaris Crittenton - the other future NBA player on that team - and took off from just inside the free-throw line to dunk the ball. The kids holding the mocking signs ran onto the court, tore up the signs and stomped on the pieces.

Paul Howard ducked out to the bathroom and overheard some old men muse that they were glad they could tell their grandkids about this day. They wouldn't be able to afford to go to Dwight Howard's games next year.

"He could handle the ball. He could make free throws," Sheryl said. "He could dunk. He could do it all. But to him it was about a team concept. His dream was to be No. 1, go out of high school, and it happened."

Sheryl wanted him to go to college for at least one year, but her son's goals were clear. And when he grew more than a foot as a teenager, they became even more realistic.

Paul, Dwight's uncle and the Fulton County District Attorney, remembered a poll conducted the night the Magic won the first pick in the 2004 draft. Sixty percent of the voters said the Magic should take forward Emeka Okafor (of Bellaire and UConn) with the pick.

"He was so upset he went to his room and he just stayed there," Paul said. "I remember going and talking to him and he said, 'Uncle Paul, I want to be the No. 1 draft choice.' "

Dwight saw people struggle - but not in his immediate family. He had classmates and teammates whose fathers weren't in their lives, and Dwight Howard Sr. became like a surrogate father to them. One teammate, Darryl Slack, lived with the Howards for a few months, experiencing stability he didn't have in his own home.

They had family meals, played basketball outside, walked to church together and teased each other. They had curfews and strict rules, too.

One night Slack, sleeping on the floor in Dwight's room, tried to sneak in a late-night phone call to a girl.

"Dwight warned me and said, 'You better get off the phone, my dad's going to come in here,' " Slack said. "Dwight's dad busted through the room cut the lights on me. 'Boy, you know what time it is? You better get off the phone.' Dwight laughed at me the whole night, laughed at me the next day, told all my teammates what happened."

Poor public perception

The difference is striking for Johnny Davis, Dwight Howard's first NBA coach.

"The Dwight Howard I spent time around in his rookie year was not the same guy I was reading about," Davis said. "To me it was they couldn't be talking about the kid I had. I don't know what happened; I don't know what prompted anything. I just know that Dwight Howard is not a rotten kid nor is he a villain. … Maybe some things didn't go the way he would've planned or the way people around him would've planned, but I still don't see that as an indictment as a person."

Davis remembers a childlike player who had the potential to become a superstar, one treated like a little brother by a lot of his older teammates, some of whom were in their 30s.

Dudley, who had known Howard since kindergarten, moved to Orlando about the same time as Howard - something he'd planned since before the Magic got the first pick.

Howard's family also sent Howard's older cousin, Kevin Samples, with him to help the transition. Samples worked for his cousin until Howard fired him this year.

He had three head coaches in the NBA before the Magic hired Stan Van Gundy, and Howard got as close as he's ever gotten to an NBA championship. From there, the team changed and regressed.

As the end of Howard's contract approached, the city clamored for him to stay, not leave as Shaquille O'Neal had more than a decade prior. Howard waived his opt-out clause before the trade deadline in March 2012, then reportedly asked for a trade months later after a new regime took over.

"People saw one minute him on TV saying I'm loyal and this is where I want to be and the next minute him saying I want a trade, but they didn't see the things that led up to it," Dudley said. "They might not ever see it. He can't talk about it. We can't talk about it.

"… Obviously I think if he had a chance to go back and do it all again, I think he would handle it 10 times better."

The end of his time in Orlando was also clouded by a report and then Van Gundy's public confirmation that Howard asked for him to be fired, then insinuations that he was faking the back injury that kept him from finishing that season.

"He needed somewhere new," Dudley said. "That's where the chips fell. He was happy because it was a new chance. It was a new situation, and he embraced it. He fully embraced the team that picked him up."

The Lakers barely made the playoffs, and Howard described the season as a "nightmare" at one point.

Eager for fresh start

This month Howard made a major career decision for the third time.

His first was the easy decision to forgo college to play in the NBA. It was so easy for Howard, he would take boxes of letters from schools courting him and throw them into a trash can, unopened.

His second was a messy decision to leave Orlando, though he didn't get to choose his team that time.

His third had smoother edges.

"When we first got to L.A., I'm not going to lie, because it was the Lakers, because it was Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, I actually thought they had a pretty good team," said James Kirkland, Howard's best friend who also went to SACA with him. "But then as things sort of went on, you could tell Dwight really wasn't happy. He wasn't smiling as much as he did when he was in Orlando. You could tell he wasn't really comfortable there. Every city isn't for everybody. I think it's all about fits.

"I think he's definitely wanted and loved again. Houston is a city that's been waiting for that next superstar and they'll have that with Dwight."

Kirkland lobbied for his friend to choose the Rockets, perhaps as hard as Rockets forward Chandler Parsons did.

Howard's decision to leave the Lakers led to more derision and accusations that he couldn't handle the pressure of that franchise.

"But that's where I say you live and you learn," Dudley said. "You learn not to care about what ESPN and Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith have to say. You learn to get above that. You learn to stop worrying about what this person or this teammate has to say."

As the Rockets introduced Howard during Saturday's news conference, he smiled. And he promised that wouldn't stop.